1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to semiconductor wafer processing, and more particularly, to etch and plasma related semiconductor wafer manufacturing processes and related hardware.
2. Description of the Related Art
A chip manufacturing facility is composed of a broad spectrum of technologies. Cassettes containing semiconductor wafers are routed to various stations in a facility where they are either processed or inspected. Semiconductor processing generally involves the deposition of material onto and removal (“etching”) of material from wafers. Typical processes include chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), electroplating, chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), etching, and others.
One concern regarding wafer processing is wafer throughput. Generally, the greater the wafer throughput, the lower the manufacturing cost and therefore the lower the cost of the processed wafers. In order to increase wafer processing throughput, conventional batch processing chambers have been developed. Batch processing allows several wafers to be processed simultaneously using common fluids, such as process gases, chambers, processes, and the like, thereby decreasing equipment costs and increasing throughput. Ideally, batch-processing systems expose each of the wafers to an identical process environment whereby each wafer simultaneously receives the same process gases and plasma densities for uniform processing of the batch. Unfortunately, the processing within batch processing systems is hard to control such that uniform processing occurs with respect to every wafer. Consequently, batch processing systems are notorious for non-uniform processing of wafers. To achieve better process control, single chamber wafer processing systems were developed to conduct wafer processing on a single wafer in a one-at-a-time-type fashion within an isolated process environment. Unfortunately, single chamber wafer processing systems generally are not able to provide as high a throughput rate as batch processing systems, as each wafer must be sequentially processed.
Therefore, there is a need for a wafer processing system configured to provide controllable etch uniformity of a single wafer system and improved throughput characteristics of a batch processing system.